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Chris Gowland, mortgages director at Halifax, said: "The majority of areas in the country where the average age of first-time buyers is two to three years below the national average of 30 are outside southern England, mostly locations where house prices are typically lower both in monetary terms and in relation to earnings, factors that help to reduce the size of the deposit needed."

He continued: "With the youngest average first time buyer age dropping to 27 in some areas, this is a stark reminder of how early aspiring home owners should start thinking about what they will need to get onto the property ladder and what options they should consider in order to take their first step."

Homes in nine of the 10 areas with the youngest first-time buyers cost less than 5.8 times their wages typically.

The national average house price to average earnings ratio for first-time buyers is 5.8.

In Brent in London, where the average age of a first-time buyer is 33, buyers need to find more than 12 times their annual wages to get on their property ladder.

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In the borough of Lambeth in London the average age of a first-time buyer is 30Credit: Alamy

But in Barnsley, where the average first-time buyer is 28, they need to find less than four times their yearly wages to buy a home.

First-time buyers generally are typically a year older than a decade ago and two years older than when Halifax's records started in 1983.

The average first-time buyer age in London has increased by three years since 1983, when it was 29.

Halifax said Government schemes and the "bank of mum and dad" are likely to have prevented a sharper rise in the average age of first-time buyers.

It said the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) estimated that 62% of first-time buyers in 2014 became homeowners either with assistance from family or Help to Buy schemes.

Halifax used figures from its own database and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for the research.